Witty knitter

Boxing Day

Sally and David provided us with the most stupendous lunch - champagne, salmon with Kiffler potatoes and stir-fry vegetables and a soy-based sauce, followed by trifle. Real English trifle, swimming in sherry, no bought custard or tinned fruit. On the way home, a visit to some of Sandra's family, with Christmas cake and home-made shortbread. A small ham sandwich was more than enough for dinner, followed by a repeat Agatha Christie on TV and an early night.

Today we swim. Tomorrow a trip to the airport, and then we have another week of holiday in our new house together.

Food and other news

We've cooked a small turkey in the new oven with enormous success. Two stuffings - onion, apple and thyme in one and bacon, parsley and orange in the other - and oddly the second was the nicer. There was also kumara, carrot, potatoes and pumpkin roasted with the meat, and broccolini.  We've drunk both Sauv Blanc and sparkling, but probably not enough of either. We've had fresh fruit salad and fresh raspberry icecream. And homemade chocolate truffles with coffee. We've watched some of the Grand Designs marathon on cable, and we've dozed.

Sandra has taken her mother out for a walk. It helps her to keep us apart as I have a tendency to actually listen and respond to what is being said rather than letting it all wash over me.  I understand that engagement in conversation is not a useful skill in all circumstances and I am practising being zen and unresponsive for a few more days.

I've read about half of the new Val McDermid and now I'm going to attempt to solve the mysteries of the electronic photo frame I was gifted. Taken all together, a successful Christmas Day. I hope yours was good too, and we all have many more of them.

Thought for December 24

Advanced age does not always bring wisdom, kindness or even good manners. Just sayin'.

Me! me!

I rarely do memes, but SkepticLawyer has tagged me for this one and it feels impolite to refuse. Also, Sandra's 87-year-old mother is staying so it's quite good to have an excuse to be cloistered away at the computer. And I quite enjoyed it.

THE 99 THINGS MEME

Things you’ve already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicize
Things you haven’t done and don’t want to - leave in plain font
Things You Wish You'd Done but You Know in Your Heart That it's Too Late Now - underlined.

[I've also added a new category: Bold Italics for things that you've kind of done.]

1. Started your own blog.
Obviously. More than once.

2. Slept under the stars.

3. Played in a band.
Does playing the recorder in a group at school count?

4. Visited Hawaii.

5. Watched a meteor shower.

6. Given more than you can afford to charity.
Only of my time and energy, not actual money.

7. Been to Disneyland/world.

8. Climbed a mountain.

9. Held a praying mantis.
Yes, when I was in NZ last I held one my grandaughters had caught.

10. Sang a solo.
No, no, no. And everyone should be grateful.

11. Bungee jumped.

12. Visited Paris.
Last year, with my son Matt and his partner Roberto, who is French/Italian. Magic.

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
Does knitting count?

15. Adopted a child.

16. Had food poisoning.

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.

18. Grown your own vegetables.
For many years. Baked my own bread and made my own yoghurt too.

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.
Yes. Ho-hum. It was hard to see anything through the crowd.

20. Slept on an overnight train.
Wellington-Auckland a few times many decades ago.

21. Had a pillow fight.
Can''t really remember, but I'm sure I have, at a camp.

22. Hitch hiked.

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill.
Once or twice...

24. Built a snow fort.

25. Held a lamb.
See 9 above - my granddaughters train a lamb each every year for Lamb and Calf Day. Most of them seem to meet tragic ends involving poison or accidental falls. Or. less tragically, they end up in pices in the freezer.

26. Gone skinny dipping.

27. Run a marathon.

28. Ridden a gondola in Venice.
Sandra has a conference in Venice this year, but the chances of me joining her are remote at this stage...

29. Seen a total eclipse.
In Upper Hutt, outside a supermarket in the middle of the morning. Very pedestrian.

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
Many times, including a sunrise over the Grand Canyon which was pretty amazing.

31. Hit a home run.

32. Been on a cruise.
Have been obsessed with cruising the North West passage ever since readin Barbara Vine's No Night is too Long.

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
Which ones - my natural mother's or my adoptive parents'? After driving round the south of Ireland for a week last year I'm sure I went past a house or two that the Driscolls (Mother's father's father) may have lisved in, but I'm not really that bothered.

35. Seen an Amish community.

36. Taught yourself a new language.

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
At the moment. But things have a habit of changing...

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.

39. Gone rock climbing.

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person.

41. Sung Karaoke.

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.
But I have seen other ones in NZ. Interesting things in the natural world do exist outside the borders of the US...

43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant.

44. Visited Africa.

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
In this part of the world that's not so difficult. Many times.

46. Been transported in an ambulance.
Definitely *not* on my wishlist.

47. Had your portrait painted.

48. Gone deep sea fishing.

49. Seen the Sistine chapel in person.

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkelling.
Yes, on The Reef. And want to do it again.

52. Kissed in the rain.
I wonder what happened to her... she was weird...

53. Played in the mud.

54. Gone to a drive-in theatre.

55. Been in a movie.

56. Visited the Great Wall of China.

57. Started a business.

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia.

60. Served at a soup kitchen.

61. Sold Girl Scout cookies.

62. Gone whale watching.

63. Gotten flowers for no reason.
Once or twice

64. Donated blood.
When I was a student, often..

65. Gone sky diving.

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp.

67. Bounced a cheque.
No, but my late ex-husband bounced many on the joint account

68. Flown in a helicopter.

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.

71. Eaten Caviar.
Love it.

72. Pieced a quilt.
Too impatient.

73. Stood in Times Square.
Ho hum

74. Toured the Everglades.

75. Been fired from a job.
Does 'redundancy' count?

76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London.
Ho Hum

77. Broken a bone.
See 46 above

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.
Had a boyfriend with one once.

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.
See above. Magic.

80. Published a book.
Written several, haven't published any.

81. Visited the Vatican.

82. Bought a brand new car.
With Narelle, just before she died. Just sold it yesterday.

83. Walked in Jerusalem.

84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
Once, when I was the NZ publicity officer for La Leche League. With a big interview.

85. Read the entire Bible.

86. Visited the White House.
Walked past.

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.

88. Had chickenpox.
Horribly, yes.

89. Saved someone’s life.

90. Sat on a jury.
Got called but dismissed.

91. Met someone famous.
David and Naomi Lange.

92. Joined a book club
Belonged to one for many years in Upper Hutt. Loved it.

93. Lost a loved one.
Mum, Dad, Narelle. Des, whom I loved once.

94. Had a baby.
Three times.

95. Seen the Alamo in person.

96. Swum in the Great Salt Lake.

97. Been involved in a law suit.
One that Des tried to bring.

98. Owned a cell phone.
WHo doesn't?

99. Been stung by a bee.
Only once. Very unpleasnat but not dangerous for me.

Just what we needed

At this time of year, when our credit cards are cowering in fear, James has chosen to open his online specialist sock yarn shop. Have a browse. Go mad. There's some lovely stuff there.

And I also hear on Ravelry that Daphne at The Knittery is stopping production so you need to get in and get what you want quickly. Life's a never-ending round of temptation at the moment.

This may be a record...

...for the number of posts in one day on this blog, but this is a biggie. My daughter Lizzie in New Zealand has just completed her BA. She has been awarded a fees scholarship to do postgraduate work because she is in the top 5% of the students in her cohort. Her father would have been bursting with pride - I remember that grin he'd get on his face that just wouldn't go away.

The kindness of strangers

A couple of weeks ago my friend Sally emailed me to say that her sister Judith had promised a gift from Harrogate, where she lives, to the 600th commenter on Sally's blog, and it was me. Sally explained here.

Today the box from Harrogate arrived.

The contents were carefully wrapped in pink tissue paper, sealed with blue-and-silver stars, each with a carefully hand-written label explaining how it repesents Harrogate. In my haste I removed those before I thought to take another photo, but Judith has taken enormous trouble.

Here are the unwrapped contents of the box (click to embiggen). There is toffee in a decorative tin (really sticky - I'm prising it bissfully off my teeth as I write), some other sweets encased in a Christmas decoration, a book on the Spirit of Yorkshire, some really amazing buttons (including a 1930s shell one on a lovely card), local sulphur soap, a tiny tin just made to hold stitchmarkers, and four vintage-style postcards, two with more detail on the back. Sadly, a little china basket didn't survived the journey, but I've put its label in to give you an idea of Judith's attention to detail.

Thank you Judith. I am so touched that someone I have never met would go to so much trouble for me.

You think you're freezing?

Some of you will know how strange I find people in Sydney who claim they are 'freezing' in our mild winters. I'm going to bookmark this post to re-read the next time I feel cold in Sydney. Melissa's post is about what it's like to cope with weather that is really freezing, and without electricity.

All together now....

Awwwww...

We decorated our tree. Which means that I crawled underneath and attached plugs and hung low things and Sandra put the star on top and draped tinsel and hung high things. And how cute are these two little toys, which come from Sandra's childhood?

 And before you say anything, it doesn't look as crooked in real life as it looks in this photo. It's small, only about 1.3 metres, and it smells just wonderful. We got it here, on Parramatta Rd, on the way home from work. How easy was that?

I'm very cynical about this time of year, but we're making a fuss partly because Sandra's mother will be with us, and partly because it feels right to celebrate what we are building in our lives.

WWKIP in summer

That's the downunder summer, of course. It's difficult for us to enjoy WWKIP* in June, so we organised an end-of-year one in Sydney. You can see Andrew's photos here. That's me on the left and Atholie (GrandmaFlea) being interviewed by David Reidy for Sticks and String, and you can download the interviews (it's number 87).

It was great fun, with a secret Santa (thanks Fiona for organising that) and lots of chat and laughter. And there were lovely surprises - the identity of Andrew's Tall And Handsome is no longer a secret.

*That's Worldwide Knit in Public Day, for you non-knitters, organised for the North American summer